


Unwinding

by Katherine



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Canon Nonbinary Character, Gently brushing out long wet and tangled hair of upset character, Hair Brushing, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:53:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28747257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: Catra stretched out on her bed, belly down, tail thudding against the frame.
Relationships: Catra/Double Trouble (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22
Collections: Bulletproof 20/21





	Unwinding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tavina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tavina/gifts).



Catra stretched out on her bed, belly down, tail thudding against the frame. People talked about showers as relaxing. She remembered, back in training, the others in her group after some plumbing problem had finally been fixed. Rogelio with water beading on his scales, sighing in one of his expressive, wordless comments. Kyle had practically tried to come up with a poem about it, not that he'd been able to think of a rhyme for unwinding.

Unwound she was not. Clean, and damp, and not relaxed in the least. Her hands were curled into fists, sharp claws dimpling her own skin. The Horde was supposed to be _winning_ under her guidance, not faltering. She flattened her ears at the persistent, dispiriting thought, and at everything else that had gone wrong, from grand battle plans to the immediate annoyance that was the heaviness of her wet hair, recently grown longer, on her back.

She lifted her head, ears angling towards the door, hearing light steps outside it. The fizzing protests of the lock, the click of her door closing, and then the faint shiver of sound that heralded Double Trouble shifting into their own shape.

"You need to relax," Double Trouble said, scolding and affection mingling in their voice. They set something small down on the bed beside Catra as they leaned over. Their clawed fingertips pressed in a gentle massage to Catra's hands in turn, encouraging her fingers to uncurl.

They said, "Unknit your muscles, unknit this," with a touch that skimmed the tangled length of Catra's hair. Then something about helping, that Catra did not quite catch, as Double Trouble turned away to rustle at a shelf. Catra closed her eyes and waited. She could feel the prospect of being able to relax, soon, under Double Trouble's familiar care.

When they tucked one thin towel under Catra's head, their thumb rubbed her chin for a moment. Catra's lips twitched, although she wasn't going to smile, not yet. Double Trouble briskly passed another towel over Catra's hair. "So little substance to these," Double Trouble complained, "I should have a word with the props department."

As if the Horde had anything as properly organised as departments. There was a supply room or three, but Catra had more important things to oversee than linens. At least she didn't have to oversee anything else tonight, secure in her own locked room. She _had_ locked the door, but Double Trouble had their ways with locks as with so many other restrictions that they moved through with ease.

Double Trouble rucked up the towel by Catra's face, letting her hide her expression, pretend that right at this moment she was not literally being seen. Double Trouble knowing her was a vulnerability, and even behind a lock Catra still had a difficult time being vulnerable. Nor did she want to talk about what various plans had gone wrong today, and Double Trouble, characteristically, did not ask. They had probably slipped in to the meetings, anyway, or at least hung around in a guard's shape nearby. So Catra didn't have to say.

Double Trouble picked at the worst of the tangles, deftly, utterly unhurried at this task they had set for themself. They paused every so often to rub with the towel they had kept hold of, evidently focused on unknitting her hair, as they had said, not on getting it dry.

A low laugh, satisfied, came from Double Trouble when they drew their fingers all the way through the middle of Catra's hair, from between her ears right to the lower part of her back. If Catra shivered, then, it could have been from the accompanying flick of tiny drops of water from the lifted ends of her hair onto her bare skin.

Catra had forgotten to look at what they had placed on the bed. It turned out, from the feel as Double Trouble applied it, to be a hairbrush. And it felt good, the wide-set bristles smooth through her still wet hair.

At a nudging touch to her shoulder Catra rolled to be on her side. Double Trouble fanned Catra's hair over her face, across the towel that she was maybe, in a way, hiding behind. They combed that section with their claw-tips first, before brushing it back to join the rest of Catra's hair. The faint rasping sound of the brush made a pattern to listen to.

The bed creaked when Double Trouble adjusted their pose, curving behind Catra, elegant; Catra didn't need to be looking to know that adjective applied. They briefly brushed Catra's tail, which was not tangled, before twining their own tapering tail around hers, smoothness touching short fur for an intimate moment.

They resumed brushing Catra's hair, the slow, repeated strokes of the brush putting an end to the remaining small tangles. With near-silent, careful touch, Double Trouble eased Catra out of her mood. When Double Trouble placed a nuzzling kiss on Catra's palm, she realised that she wasn't clenching her hands any longer. She might even be smiling.


End file.
